When did giving up something for Lent turn into something self-serving? As a child, it was drilled into me through my Catholic upbringing that Lent was about giving up something valuable to us, so that we may appreciate the sacrifices of Christ during his 40 days and nights in the desert. So we would abstain… Read more »
Tag: Self-Actualization
The existentialist explanation of lent or why Catholics don’t wash their faces on Ash Wednesday
Blow the trumpet in Zion! proclaim a fast, call an assembly; Gather the people, notify the congregation; Assemble the elders, gather the children and the infants at the breast; Let the bridegroom quit his room and the bride her chamber. Between the porch and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep,… Read more »
Existential roundup
Welcome to the Existential Roundup, where we bring you links to some articles currently trending that may be of interest to those in the existential-humanistic psychology community. Happy 2015! Only two days into the new year and some of us are still considering what resolutions to make for the coming year while others have already… Read more »
The paradox of servant leadership in the classroom and therapy office
I loved Mr. Rogers as a kid—that avuncular, kindly, gently humorous man who could instill in me a desire to learn and become involved in civic endeavors better than any of my childhood teachers could. Now, with Fred Rogers shining in my memory, I work as a professor and a therapist. In the classroom, I… Read more »
Out with the old, in with the new
For those of you who do not follow the HBO series The Newsroom, penned by that most provocative of television writers, Aaron Sorkin, you have missed a most disturbing plot twist in the series’ final episodes that has actually made me lose sleep. The series centers on the newsroom of the fictional 24-hour news channel,… Read more »
Number 9
Photo by Abbie Rowe. Jack Benny, one of the 20th century’s greatest comedians to come out of the radio and Vaudeville circuit, was forever telling people who asked that he was 39. Even when it was painfully clear he wasn’t. And everyone laughed at the joke every time. And having just experienced/endured/gone through for the… Read more »
Psychoneurointracrinology
Illustration by Nevit Dilmen. Psychoneurointracrinology Defined Psychoneurointracrinology is the study of psychological, neurological, and intracrinological processes forming a mind-brain continuum within the person (Gordon, 2007, 2013, 2015, in press). Psycho (psychological) refers to constructs variously referred to as psyche, self, soul, mind, and consciousness. Neuro (neurological) refers to the composition and reactions within the nervous… Read more »
From Basic Human Tendencies to Personal Myth
Knud Leem’s 1767 copper carving of a Shaman. Charlotte Bühler’s Theory of Development Charlotte Bühler, a pioneer in women’s adolescent psychology, emphasized the distinctions between humanistic psychology and the Freudian science that had dominated the discipline earlier in her career. She pointed out that development is synonymous with health and self-realization rather than the endpoint… Read more »
Sylvia
She came to the coffee store and wanted tea. It was a little odd, but she was a little odd, somewhere between crazy and eccentric. Her name, as you might have guessed from the title, was Sylvia. Jason’s fourth law is the older you get, the younger everybody else looks; the corollary is that as… Read more »
Waxing Existential: Summer of Awe
This time of year, I often remember the summers I spent on Cape Cod, at sleepaway camp. I was an anxious kid in many ways, quiet and introverted. My self-confidence was unformed, my shame immense. I never loved sleepovers, unless they were at my house, so the thought of going to sleepaway camp for eight… Read more »